Local Leagues in New Mexico

Recent Supreme and lower court decisions have demonstrated that photo ID laws
have disenfranchised thousands of eligible voters who cannot obtain a photo ID
due to disability, age, illness, transportation, or financial issues. We
opposed legislation for photo ID in the 2016 session just as we have opposed
proposals for photo ID in the past.

The uncalculated and incalculable burden would be greatest for citizens for
whom it is most cost prohibitive or inconvenient to take off work, get
transportation, stand in line at the Motor Vehicle Department, and apply for a
photo ID or driver's license. Often these individuals don't have the underlying
documentation that is needed to get a photo ID, thus disenfranchising the very
people who currently must work the hardest to vote.

In addition, the bill called for the NM Taxation and Revenue Department to
absorb what they modestly calculate at $3 per photo ID card plus $200,000
programming costs. At a time when our state is in the midst of an ongoing
fiscal crisis, it seems irresponsible to use taxpayer money to create a new
government program to address voter impersonation, a problem that has been
proven as exceptionally rare* and already a felony offense. Why waste precious
taxpayer dollars to pay for photo ID when our state has effective voter
identification procedures already in place?

Besides the cost to implement and maintain a new program, photo ID requirements
represent a serious threat to efforts to ensure the right of every eligible
citizen to vote and have their vote counted. If America wants to live up to its
promise to provide all citizens with the same opportunities, then we can't pass
laws that block eligible Americans from voting and deny them the opportunity to
participate equally in our great democracy.

A 2014 study found only 31 possible instances of voter fraud over 14 years of
elections with a billion votes cast. Researcher Justin Levitt is a national
expert in constitutional law and election law and n ow Deputy Assistant
Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of
Justice.